


It Lasts Longer

by inviernos



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Pre-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 18:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11789316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inviernos/pseuds/inviernos
Summary: After a long wait Prompto finally gets to photograph Gladio's tattoo.





	It Lasts Longer

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Day 1 of FFXV week. I chose the "Frozen in time" prompt.
> 
> This is kind of related to a scene from [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11132823) but can definitely be read on its own.

Gladiolus had always been the most at ease around Prompto’s camera.  Or at least, he had always been the one who complained the least whenever Prompto brought it out.

If he had to rank them, Gladio was definitely the most natural in pictures, some might argue the most photogenic.  He wasn’t necessarily _trying_ to take bad pictures of his friends, but Gladio never tried to look good for the camera and always ended up looking great anyway.   But the pictures where he ignored Prompto’s camera, or at least pretended to, where he just went about his business were even better.  Something about him just translated well into pictures.

Ignis definitely had to be next.  Although he complained fiercely at the beginning of their friendship, when everyone was still getting comfortable around each other, with time he learned to live with the constant noise of the shutter.  Eventually he too got more comfortable hamming it up while the camera was out, laughing and smiling with the rest of them as if it hadn’t even been there.

Noctis had learned to accept the presence of the camera before any of them, and that was probably why Prompto had a feeling that if he tried to take a picture of Noctis from a mile away, he would still manage to look right into the lens with that slightly annoyed look of his.  He _always_ caught Prompto, or had something to say.  But that would never stop him from taking pictures of his best friend.

He never really planned the things he took pictures of, especially considering his friends who he just wanted to capture every moment of, but there was always one thing he had wanted to photograph that he was finally getting the chance to.

“What’s up, big guy?”  Prompto opened the door to his apartment and invited the taller man inside.

“Hey,” Gladio greeted him.

Prompto had excitedly brought up taking a picture of Gladio’s finished tattoo almost two years ago, when he was still in school.  He thought it was a pretty big undertaking and after all the time Gladio sat for it and the meaning behind it, it’d be a nice way to showcase it and have it immortalized on film as well as on his body.  Plus, Prompto could always use the practice photographing actual models. 

Gladio had agreed, but it seemed about every couple of months Prompto would ask about it, Gladio would apologize profusely for forgetting.  And thanks to both of their training schedules and various other matters that had priority, it had taken almost exactly two years for him to show up at Prompto’s door.

“So where do you want me?"  Gladio asked, a slightly confused look on his face.

“Well,” Prompto gestured to his left over to his living room, to one of the reasons he was so thrilled about this.

He’d had the makeshift studio area with the medium sized white backdrop stood up against a bare wall for a while now, but wasn’t able to figure out exactly what he wanted to photograph in front of it.  Lately he had been feeling like he had wasted the time and money setting it up, but here was justification for buying the equipment in the first place.

“Hmm.” Gladio grunted as he walked into the space. 

“This is legit.”  He let out an amused laugh.

“Listen, I take photographing my friends very seriously,” said Prompto.

“You know it’s too bad your dad is so busy,” Prompto began as he walked over to the large lamp in front of the backdrop and plugged it in. 

“I was gonna say we should get him over here too so we could take pictures of both your tattoos.  Side by side…somehow.”

“You know, that idea’s not half-bad,” said Gladio.  “I’ll bring it up to the old man one day.  Might be nice to get the family tradition on film…like professionally.”

“Yeah, definitely!  Just let me know.  Hopefully we can _all_ find some time to make that work,” said Prompto.

“Yeah, maybe in like two more years all three of us will have free time again,” Gladio joked.

“Right?”  Prompto laughed.

“Thanks for coming out though, dude.”

After he was sure that the artificial light wouldn’t show up too bright on camera with the competing sunlight shining in through his window, Prompto moved to make sure the backdrop material was pulled taut across the stand one more time.

“So…” said Prompto, as he held his camera up.  “You ready?”

“I was born ready,” Gladio said a little too seriously.

“Already did warm-ups and everything.”

“Warm-ups?”  Prompto raised an eyebrow.

“Well I gotta take my shirt off, don’t I?”  Gladio shrugged.

“Ah, gotcha,” Prompto replied, trying not to snort.  “That, you do.”

“Now, I guess since we’re ready, if you wouldn’t mind uh…”  Prompto paused.

He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do first; if he should tell Gladio how to pose or if he should just let him lead.

Gladio stepped onto the x taped onto the floor, and turned to face Prompto as confident as always, waiting for his next instructions.  Prompto was pretty sure Gladio had never modeled like this before (although he could have if he didn’t have royal duties).  Sure, he’d had to sit for professional portraits before; they’d all had to, but nothing like this.  If he was nervous Prompto would never be able to tell.  He didn’t seem to have a problem with being stared at, studied.  Gladio had his fingers hooked through the belt loops of his black jeans as he swayed back and forth, waiting patiently. 

The blond took a few steps back to make sure Gladio was completely in the center of the backdrop.  He nodded to himself, pleased to see that he had placed the x in the exact right spot on the floor. 

Now, they were ready to begin.

Prompto’s finger was on the button, he was just about to take a picture of Gladio standing just like that, before he noticed what was off.

“So…are you gonna…?”  Prompto pretended to grab his own shirt and pull it off.

“Oh?”  Gladio raised his eyebrows.  “Oh right!”

Gladio had lifted his shirt to just above his waist before Prompto realized they actually needed a picture with his shirt on.

“Wait!” Prompto all but yelled, and Gladio pulled his shirt back down.

“We should probably take one shirt-on too.  So we have an actual starting picture, you know?”

“Makes sense,” Gladio agreed. 

“So how do you want me to…,” Gladio began to ask.  And for the first time Prompto could sense Gladio felt nervous.

“How do I…like…?” Gladio gestured vaguely.

“Just stand how you normally stand, dude.  Don’t think too hard,” said Prompto.

Prompto watched Gladio breathe out, relax, and place his hands on his hips.  He let his head tilt slightly to his left, the unsure look on his face soon replaced by a self-assured one.

It wasn’t the super relaxed pose Prompto had hoped for, but it was…Gladio.  The lines and detail of the feathers that ran down both of his arms from under the sleeves of his black shirt were sharp on the screen and his sturdy presence could already be felt through the lens. 

It was a start.

“One more,” said Prompto.

“Huh?” asked Gladio.

Prompto felt just a little bad at how surprised Gladio had sounded.

“Whoops,” he clarified.  “Let’s try another pose, I mean.”

“Then you can take your shirt off, I know you’ve been dying to.”  Prompto laughed.

“Hey!”

“Just a joke, buddy,” Prompto laughed.

“Yeah, whatever,” Gladio mumbled.   “What do you want me to do now?”

“Do like this.”  Prompto placed both of his hands behind his head so that his elbows were pointed towards the ceiling to demonstrate.

”The tattoo goes through your armpits, right?” he asked.

Gladio nodded as he copied Prompto’s pose.  Gladio’s eyes were already intense enough to burn right through the camera lens if he wanted.  There was a well-defined outline of Gladio’s shoulder muscles through shirt and the lines of the tattoo shifted slightly to accommodate the large muscles under his skin.

This was Prompto’s shot.

“Nice, dude.”  Prompto exclaimed, followed by a shutter noise.

“Thanks,” grumbled Gladio, a slight blush moving across his cheeks.

“And now, if you wouldn’t mind,” Prompto started.  “Time to lose the shirt.”

Gladio wasted no time in taking it off either, tossing it over Prompto so that it landed on the back of his couch.  Prompto almost found it funny, but they were all used to it by now.  And no one could really blame the guy either.  Prompto figured if he had that body he’d be the exact same way.

“Can you turn around for a sec?” he asked and Gladio obliged.

Now that he was looking closer at his back, Prompto could see a few spots where the tattoo had already started to fade, probably from how much time Gladio spent outside.  It was still a glorious piece of work and even if one hadn’t known what it meant for Gladio and his family, it was just a beautiful tattoo.

“Hmm,” he thought out loud.

Gladio put his hands back on his hips while he waited for Prompto’s next instructions.

“Oh!  That works too!  Hold still,” he said quickly.

Prompto was glad he couldn’t see the look on Gladio’s face in this particular picture.  Gladio’s back remained turned to him, countless feathers inked into his back with great detail, spanning across muscle.  The feathers leading from his upper back flowed into the black wings that wrapped down around his arms.

“Okay, turn around,” said Prompto, gently.

Gladio seemed to become more comfortable going from pose to pose, but Prompto made sure to capture a few pictures of him resting or moving in between poses as well.  As Gladio turned back around, he brought his right arm across his chest, braced by his left forearm, into a stretch.

“Hold it!” yelled Prompto.

“Really?” Gladio sounded incredulous, but mostly amused that Prompto wanted this shot.

“Look back down again,” said Prompto, with a smile on his face.

Gladio shared the smile, and Prompto focused his camera until he could clearly see Gladio holding the stretch, his head tilted down and the corner of his lips pulled slightly upwards into a smile, in the screen.

“Man, how do you do that?”  Prompto asked, amazed.

“Do what?” the older man laughed quietly.

“You ignore me and my camera half the time and look great.  Now you’re looking right at me, I’m telling you what to do and still can’t take one bad picture of you, man.  How?” 

Prompto was joking, mostly.

“You _trying_ to take bad pictures of me?”  Gladio laughed.

“Guess I’m just too photogenic,” Gladio said smugly.

 “I’d say,” Prompto had to agree.

“I think we’re almost done though,” said Prompto as he flipped through the shots they’d already taken.

“We just gotta even it out!  Go like this again!”  Prompto placed his hands on the back of his head once more.

“Okay,” said Gladio, a tiny laugh building in the back of his throat as he did.

Prompto took a few more shots, mentally noting the detail of the tattoo in his underarms and bicep area.  He moved closer to an unflinching Gladio and took a few close ups of the bird’s head tattooed on the left side of his chest.

“Now put your hands on your hips again, and look all tough like before,” said Prompto.

“Look tough?”  Gladio laughed as he put his hands on his hips.

Prompto could tell he was actually attempting to look tough this time but failed; there was an obvious smile on his face in the last few pictures of the pose.

He didn’t know what exactly Gladio planned to do with these pictures, or if he planned on showing anyone else but his family.  Gladio would show people the pictures in whatever order he liked, but Prompto loved the progression from pictures of Gladio looking totally poised and even a bit cocky, to him becoming more relaxed and smiling happily at the camera as he showed off the piece of art on his body that was so important to him.

“And I think we’re done!” yelled Prompto.  “You did great dude.  Thanks again for finally letting me do this.”

“Nah, thank _you_ for taking the pictures and reminding me I finally needed to get my ass out here,” Gladio said sincerely.

“Aww, don’t mention it dude!  Now, if you wanna put your shirt back on and make some tea, I’ll show you the pics on the ol’ laptop,” said Prompto as he tossed Gladio’s shirt back to him.

“Sounds like a plan,” Gladio agreed.

“Oh my god, wait though!”  Prompto yelled as Gladio was just beginning to put his shirt back over his head.

“I almost forgot…I totally wanted you to do one of those super-flexed bodybuilder poses.  Would help to show off the tattoo a bit more, you know?” he continued, keeping the look on his face as serious as he could manage.

Gladio pulled his shirt over his head and completely back on, the totally unimpressed look on his face telling Prompto that it was not happening.

“It was a joke, dude.”  Prompto sighed.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face though,” he said before descending into a fit of laughter.

 Although, he had a feeling Gladio had taken more than a few of those pictures on his own anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading if you made it this far :3  
> Idk why it seems lately everything I write just ends up with pictures of shirtless Gladio tbh.


End file.
